Something Fishy...

So yeah, I thought, since I've been enjoying cooking for so long, it was about time I found somewhere to ramble on about it without boring my nearest and dearest to death.

My future project is my aunt's wedding in July, for which I have been assigned cake decorating duties *nervous*. I'm going to need one hell of a lot of practise, judging by my past icing-related disasters, but hell - I love cake decorating and so it shouldn't be too much of a chore. Besides, my boyfriend will now doubt demolish the mounds of cake I will be turning out for this purpose.

My current project however, is to teach myself FISH. My boyfriend recently acquired a slightly obsessive interest in fishing, and I'm going to have to learn what to do with the mackerel, pollock and other little sea creatures we end up with.

While I was away at my parents for Easter, he caught a few pollock and froze them, awaiting my cooking ability (he can only manage beans on toast) and so, first day back, there I am scaling, gutting, cleaning and cooking the things.



Here they are cleaned and gutted, awaiting their fate in the grill heating up beside them.

In the absence of a fish recipe repetoire at my fingers, I did some quick browsing and settled on a breadcrumb coating. I first de-headed, de-boned and flattened the fish fillets, keeping the skin on as they were a little thin and would've fallen to pieces on the grill without it. Next, to rub with oil and a little seasoning:



Then to grill skin-side up for about 3 minutes, again, as they were only thin.

Meanwhile, onto the breadcrumb coating. I decimated a couple of slices of bread (dried out in a low oven) into rough crumbs. Mixed with a little lemon zest, dried thyme and seasoning, I had this at my hands:



Flipping the fish over was more difficult than it first appeared, but I eventually managed it and, with the help of a little olive oil and lemon juice, stuck on a nice even coating of the crumbs. Two minutes under the hot grill and a nice squeeze of lemon later:



Not bad for my first attempt, I don't think, and it tasted pretty nice with some extra lemon squeezed over. My only issue was the slight illness both me and the boyfriend experienced the next morning - word of warning: don't use a fish you've frozen straight after being caught and then left in the freezer for a week. I don't think it was a wise decision, but hell, we were excited to cook our first catch!

Bring on the mackerel I say!